Police appeared to be closing on the identity of the assassin who gunned down the UnitedHealthcare CEO in midtown Manhattan Thursday as they released a photo of the grinning suspect and searched a hostel where he was believed to have stayed.
The photos, shared by the NYPD on X, show the “person of interest,” who is wearing the same outfit as in earlier photos of the shooter, with his face mask down.
The hostel police searched was at 103rd and Amsterdam Avenue, which is where HI NYC Hostel is located, according to CNN.
Although sources told CNN that the suspect largely wore a mask while he was at the Upper West Side hostel, police were able to obtain one image of the man in which his face is visible.
The suspected killer stayed in a room with two other men while at the hostel, CNN reported.
The NYPD declined to comment on the hostel search.
The latest developments in the race to apprehend the killer, who stalked Thompson outside his hotel before firing several shots at close range, comes as law enforcement is closing in on the suspect’s identity, police sources told ABC News.
Investigators have several possible suspect names, but they were inconclusive when compared to the surveillance image released Thursday, a law enforcement official told the New York Times.
Thompson was in the city for an investor conference for his company, one of the largest healthcare providers in America.
After using a silenced weapon to gun the executive down in what city police commissioner Jessica Tisch called a “premeditated, pre-planned, targeted attack,” the killer fled on an electric bike, kicking off a sprawling manhunt.
While the killer’s motive remains unknown, the investigation has so far turned up a number of clues.
The police found bullet casings at the scene with the words “deny,” “defend,” and “depose” engraved on them, ABC News reported Wednesday night.
CCTV footage from around the crime scene shows the suspect wearing a brown jacket, a black face mask, and a gray backpack.
Items believed to have belonged to the shooter, including a water bottle and a candy wrapper, were recovered from the alley in which he fled the scene of the attack.
Thompson’s wife revealed to NBC News that Thompson had received “some threats” related to “lack of coverage” before he was slain.
